


Coming Home

by DesertVixen



Series: Brothers in Arms [3]
Category: Anne of Green Gables - L. M. Montgomery
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-09
Updated: 2015-09-09
Packaged: 2018-04-19 20:24:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4759790
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DesertVixen/pseuds/DesertVixen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jem returns to Rainbow Valley</p>
            </blockquote>





	Coming Home

He couldn’t remember Rainbow Valley ever being this quiet, Jem Blythe mused. 

He sat underneath one of the trees, enjoying the shade while Dog Monday snored quietly beside him. 

Rainbow Valley had always been a special place to the Ingleside children, the scene of feasts and fantasies. It had always been a place to gather, even if they were all doing different things. They had been together here, shared a closeness that was impossible to put into words. The advent of the Meredith children had not damaged that closeness at all, but had increased it. The two groups of children had recognized each other as belonging to the race that knows Joseph, as his mother put it. 

He was going to marry Faith Meredith, who he had met here, who he had kissed for the first time here, who had promised to be his wife here. 

Jem had been the first to leave – for Queen’s Academy in Charlottetown, for Redmond College, for the war – but Rainbow Valley had always been here, waiting for him.

It was not until he had come here that the reality of Walter’s death had sunk in for him. He had been notified, of course, and talked to men in Walter’s unit who had told him of his brother’s splendid bravery. But it was here, in the beautiful place where Walter had first seen the Piper that Jem truly realized Walter was never coming back.

He thought back to the night before he’d left to go to Queen’s, when Walter had told them the Piper was coming nearer. His brother had been in one of his strange moods, but now Jem believed that Walter had really seen the Piper, and wondered if that had been the last time.

Jem thought back to his own reaction that night, his cry that he would follow the Piper gladly. He had done so, because he’d felt it was the right thing to do. Now, he was a little ashamed of his wish to have “the old days” back again, his desire to see a big battle. He had said he would give everything to see one.

And so he had. He had been hungry and cold, wounded and imprisoned, and he regretted none of it. It had been the right thing to do, and he would never have been able to live with the shame of staying home.

Until he had come back, however, he had not realized how much of the cost his family had paid. Seeing how his parents had aged during the war – not only the grey hairs but the sadness in his mother’s eyes, the lingering weariness in his father’s movements – had helped bring that home. 

War had changed his sisters as well, had brought them the kind of sorrow their lives had never known.

And Walter would never again sit in Rainbow Valley, reading a book of myths and seeing things that others never could. The boy Jem had never thought that “everything” might include his brother.

Here, finally, in Rainbow Valley, he could finally weep for his brother.

*** *** ***

Later, he went to the corner of Rainbow Valley where he knew he would find the last of the mayflowers. The pink blossoms could not bring back the old days, but Jem hoped they might erase some of the sadness from his mother’s eyes. 

There was no way to bring back the world before the war, Jem thought, as he watched his mother bury her nose in them, just as she had done when he was a boy. There was no way to bring back their innocence, no way to bring back Walter.

But he would always wish they could.

*** *** ***

**Author's Note:**

> So this also started as a treat that didn't quite fit what the person wanted. It's inspired by the part of Rilla of Ingleside where Jem says that he hadn't realized Walter was really dead until he came home. It also, of course, draws on Rainbow Valley.


End file.
